Nottingham Forest 3-0 West Ham United
Premier League, City Ground, Saturday 2 November 2024, 3pm GMT
Last time West Ham United won at Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, John Major was Prime Minister, Bill Clinton was President, The Fugees were at number one and Independence Day was top at the box office.
It was September 1996 and Britpop was at its height, with Oasis and Blur selling millions of records, while the sporting world was being dominated by the likes of Michael Johnson, Steffi Graf, the Dallas Cowboys and Manchester United.
West Ham themselves were seeking to build on a tenth-place Premiership finish the previous season under manager Harry Redknapp, one below a Nottingham Forest side managed by Frank Clark.
When they met at the City Ground 28 years ago, both teams had won just once in their opening six Premiership fixtures and needed a victory. Thanks to goals from full-back Mark Bowen and midfielder Michael Hughes, it was the Irons who took the points on their way to a comfortable mid-table finish. Forest never recovered, despite the mid-season appointment of legend Stuart Pearce as player-manager, and would be relegated.
Nearly three decades on and the long wait for a top-flight win on the banks of the River Trent goes on after a resurgent Forest scored a 3-0 victory over the visiting Hammers.
In truth, it was a nightmare afternoon for Julen Lopetegui’s side, who fell behind midway through the first half to a header from the Reds’ leading scorer Chris Wood, before being reduced to ten men on the stroke of half-time when Edson Álvarez was sent-off.
Callum Hudson-Odoi made it two for Forest midway through the second half, before Ola Aina smashed in an outstanding third from distance to condemn West Ham to a fifth defeat in ten Premier League matches.
Playing with five at the back for the first time this season, Lopetegui’s side initially looked to be at least controlling the pace of the game in the early stages, even if the visitors created next to nothing going forward.
Forest fired a few warning shots, with Anthony Elanga and Nicolás Domínguez shooting wide, Morgan Gibbs-White thumping a free-kick into the wall and Murillo and Wood aiming off-target before the in-form New Zealand striker found the net, stealing between Jean-Clair Todibo and Maximilian Kilman to nod in Àlex Moreno’s cross from the left.
Ryan Yates and Callum Hudson-Odoi then saw shots blocked and saved as, roared on by an enthusiastic home crowd, Forest looked for a second.
West Ham’s sole shot on target inside the opening half came a minute into added-time, when that man Wood slid to keep out Lucas Paquetá’s goal-bound shot.
Within two minutes, though, the Hammers’ hopes were hit hard when Álvarez needlessly slid in to foul Elanga and the Mexican was shown a second yellow and then red by referee Peter Bankes – West Ham’s second sending-off in as many Premier League away matches and Álvarez’s second early shower of the season.
Two changes were made at the break, with Michail Antonio on to face his former club and Carlos Soler introduced. Guido Rodríguez, who had also been booked, was replaced, along with Crysencio Summerville.
The ten men did show promise early in the second period, winning three early corners, but control of the game passed to the home side, who doubled their lead on 65 minutes when Hudson-Odoi’s cross-shot took a slight deflection, eluded the diving Fabiański and curled inside the far post.
Two goals and man down, it was now a case of damage limitation, with Hudson-Odoi shooting and Nikola Milenković heading wide.
At the other end, Jarrod Bowen’s deflected shot and Antonio’s scuffed effort were all the Hammers could muster, and then it got even worse 12 minutes from full-time when Aina won the ball from Todibo and rifled an unstoppable left-foot shot into the top corner.
Łukasz Fabiański made spectacular late saves to deny Milenković and Ramón Sosa a fourth, and the assistant’s offside flag did the same to rule out Yates’ strike in between, but that was of little consolation to the travelling Claret and Blue Army, who have now seen their side concede 13 goals in their last four away matches in all competitions.
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Aina, Milenković, Murillo, Moreno, Yates ©, Domínguez, Gibbs-White (Anderson 63), Elanga (Jota Silva 63), Hudson-Odoi (Sosa 89), Wood (Awoniyi 79)
Subs not used: Carlos Miguel (GK), Williams, Toffolo, Boly, da Silva Moreira
Goals: Wood 27, Hudson-Odoi 65, Aina 78
Booked: Anderson
West Ham United: Fabiański, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Todibo, Kilman, Emerson (Irving 79), Rodríguez (Soler HT), Álvarez, Paquetá, Summerville (Antonio HT), Bowen ©
Subs not used: Foderingham (GK), Coufal, Cresswell, Casey, Luis Guilherme, Ings
Booked: Rodríguez, Álvarez, Paquetá
Sent-off: Álvarez
Referee: Peter Bankes
Attendance: TBC
